Dear Dr. Badrinath,
Warmest greetings from the island of Montreal in the province of Quebec in
Canada.
Your point regarding the often unappreciated influence of tobacco
advertising is both very valid and much appreciated; the negative
connotation of this image never really crossed our minds. Our Dr. Sherlock
Holmes would certainly be an astute and judicious purveyor of the medical
literature without the influence of nicotine.
In fact, although our conference targets physicans in the field of acute
care there is actually much to be said for smoking cessation interventions
in these settings. Smokers with acute cardiovascular or pulmonary illness
can be prime targets for the numerous effective tools (pharmacologic,
counselling, self-help and group approaches) at our disposal. This short
bibliography informs our decision-making in this regard and we will invite
our conference participants and tutors to tackle this issue in one of their
small group sessions.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16034855&query_hl=6
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15494989&query_hl=8
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10908462&query_hl=8
http://www.aemj.org/cgi/content/abstract/7/4/348
http://www.aemj.org/cgi/content/abstract/9/7/720
http://www.aemj.org/cgi/content/abstract/7/9/1042
Best wishes,
Dr. Eddy Lang MDCM CCFP(EM)CSPQ
Assistant Professor, Attending Staff, Emergency Department
SMBD Jewish General Hospital
McGill University, Montreal Canada
----- Original Message -----
From: "badri badrinath" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 2:27 PM
Subject: Physician smoking a pipe in the EBM conference flier
> Dear Colleague,
>
> Warm greetings from the East of England.
>
> I was reading through the announcement on "Practical Evidence Based
> Medicine: Striving for Research-Enhanced Clinical Practice in Acute Care:
> Emergency Medicine, Cardiology, Intensive Care and Internal Medicine
> Perspectives, 3rd Annual Conference, November 6-10, 2005, Grand Lodge,
> Mont Tremblant, Quebec" sent to the list.
>
> I was surprised to find that the conference flier has a picture of a
> physician with a pipe in his hand. Although I understand what the
> organisers are trying to convey (a medical detective with a critical
> mind), I wondered whether the pipe was necessary.
>
> I looked up the Cochrane data base and found this review.
> Lovato C, Linn G, Stead LF, Best A. Impact of tobacco advertising and
> promotion on increasing adolescent smoking behaviours. Cochrane Database
> Syst Rev. 2003;(4):CD003439.
> Reviewers concluded "Longitudinal studies consistently suggest that
> exposure to tobacco advertising and promotion is associated with the
> likelihood that adolescents will start to smoke. Based on the strength of
> this association, the consistency of findings across numerous
> observational studies, temporality of exposure and smoking behaviours
> observed, as well as the theoretical plausibility regarding the impact of
> advertising, we conclude that tobacco advertising and promotion increases
> the likelihood that adolescents will start to smoke".
>
> As evidence based practitioners we are all aware of the evidence of the
> influence of tobacco advertising. My humble suggestion is if possible we
> need to avoid anything which depicts any form of smoking as a socially
> acceptable phenomenon in all our activities and publications. I am very
> confident that none of the colleagues looking at the conference flier
> would be influenced by our marvellous Sherlock Holmes puffing his pipe!!!
>
> Please do not consider this as a criticism against any individual or an
> organisation but my general thoughts to share with fellow colleagues on
> this list.
>
> Warm regards & very best wishes,
>
> Badri
>
> Dr.P.Badrinath MD, BS, M.Phil, MPH, PhD (Cantab), MFPH
> Consultant in Public Health & Affiliated Clinical Lecturer,
> Suffolk West PCT & University of Cambridge, UK
> http://myprofile.cos.com/badrishanthi
>
> Disclaimer: The above views are my own and not that of my employing
> organisations.
>
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